tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Oct 17 08:08:02 1994
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Re: KLBC: Re: Hoch, et al.
- From: "...Paul" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Re: KLBC: Re: Hoch, et al.
- Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 11:07:08 -0400
>From: "Mark E. Shoulson" <[email protected]>
>Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 10:25:28 -0400
>Subject: Re: KLBC: Re: Hoch, et al.
>
>>From: "William H. Martin" <[email protected]>
>>Date: Sun, 16 Oct 94 22:20:58 EDT
>
>>According to Terry Donnelly:
>>>
>>> In the beating-a-dead-horse department:
>
>>> But one question: if {Hoch} comes last in a N-N construction to mean "all
>>> (of)", shouldn't the first noun be plural? Does {yuQ Hoch} = "the entire
>>> planet" and {yuQmey Hoch} = "all the planets"?
>>>
>>> - Terry
>
>>I think you have a good point here. While in many cases when
>>plurality is grammatically clear through other devices, the
>>plural suffix is unnecessary, in this case the presence or
>>absence of a plural suffix makes a significant difference in
>>the meaning of the word pair. I would tend to agree with your
>>two examples stated here.
>
>Actually, I wouldn't. "yuQ" is, indeed, plural, since plurals don't need
>to be marked in Klingon. What's more, "yuQ Hoch" does imply "all the
>planets" with reeasonable unambiguity, since for "the whole planet" one
>would use "yuQ naQ". Sure, yuQmey Hoch is okay, but hardly necessary.
Wham! Wham! (sound of a dead horse being beaten)
I would have to agree with charghwI', who said in this case you need the
specific suffix, IF you want to make sure... But this DOES come down to
context; because Hoch could mean "everybody" and not just "everything".
If you wanted to say "everyone of the planet", you'd say yuQ Hoch. If
you were talking about everyone on several planets, you could still say
yuQ Hoch -- but the person speaking would need to make sure the listener
is definitely clear that the topic of the conversation was several planets.
If they were "switching gears", they'd need to pick it out specifically...
ie. "yuQmey Hoch"...
In short, -mey CAN be necessary; but it depends on context. ~mark is right,
-mey is optional, but ONLY when the plurality is obvious to the audience;
otherwise it's imperative that you enforce the idea of plurality.
...Paul